What makes a country great?

First, let’s see what makes America great. It owes its success to the sustained support and involvement of a broad section of society. The American founding fathers gave their nation a near perfect constitution. Democracy empowered and enlightened the people. Lawmakers have not betrayed the trust of the people. The judiciary fiercely guards its independence, treats everyone equal before the law, not differentiating between the rich and the poor, strong and the weak, influential and the meek. The justice system upholds the truth and abhors lies. The media tries to preserve, protect and defend the democratic values while demonstrating the highest standard of journalistic ethics.

The confluence of various stakeholders triggered the process of impeachment of the strongest person on earth – President Donald Trump. His crime – trivial by Pakistani standards – was: asking a foreign country to investigate one of his political foes. No money was exchanged, no bribery occurred and no element of financial gain. Such seamless support of all the stakeholders makes the system incorruptible and invulnerable. If even 10 percent of these values were to be found in Pakistan, our country would have been a success story. Unfortunately, the confluence of the stakeholders of this nation have turned it into an economically weak, internationally isolated and an iniquitous state.

Arif Majeed

Karachi